


King's Gambit

by rudimentaryflair



Series: AELDWS 2019 [2]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Don't copy to another site, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-29 23:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19840966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudimentaryflair/pseuds/rudimentaryflair
Summary: For all the trials and hoops that Eames hangs up for other extractors, the real test has only ever had one part to it, and Dom knows what kind of suits that part likes.





	King's Gambit

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Week 2 of the AELDWS 2019 challenge.
> 
> Prompt: Litmus Test  
> Genre: Canon  
> Word Count: 300-400

When Dom first got his hands on a PASIV, he’d promised himself that he would never play against the odds, never decide his fate by rolling dice and guessing numbers. 

Now, as he’s traipsing around in the sweltering heat, deep in enemy territory, Dom can’t help but wish for the simplicity of pragmatism. Any other time, he’d be as far from Mombasa as possible, but with Cobol bearing down on his neck and the chance of seeing his children dangling in front of him, gambling is the only option. If he wants to pull off something as ambitious as inception, he’s going to need one hell of a forger. 

His hell of a forger comes in the form of Eames, who’s as flighty as the pigeons strutting around under the poker tables. Unfortunately, Eames would sell him out for a cigarette. Their history runs about as deep as a puddle - a few jobs here and there and some thinly-veiled barbs, but nothing more than that. Luckily, Dom knows how to play his cards; he may have an  _ incredibly  _ shitty hand, but he also has an ace up his sleeve. 

See, if there’s anything Dom knows, it’s how people’s minds work, and even though Eames has practically made a career from coverups and facades, he’s still painfully obvious when it comes to a certain point man. 

_ Gotcha,  _ he thinks when Eames leans back in his chair and looks down at his hands, to where he’s turning a poker chip around his knuckles, tongue curling around Arthur’s name like it’s a half-remembered something he’s lost along the way.

When it comes down to it, getting to Eames means speaking his language - to know that saying “Jump” gets you “Piss off” and saying “Arthur” gets “How high?”, because for all the trials and hoops that he hangs up for other extractors, the real test has only ever had one part to it, and Dom knows what kind of suits that part likes. 

So when Eames gives him a nod and goes to intercept one of Cobol’s men, saying, “Freddy! Freddy Simmonds! My god, it’s you, isn’t it?”, Dom knows he’s got him, hook, line, and sinker.

He can deal with Eames stealing his point man, Dom thinks, diving off the ramshackle balcony, so long as he does it later rather than sooner.

After all, they have a job to do.

**Author's Note:**

>  _litmus test - a test in which a single factor (such as an attitude, event, or fact) is decisive_  
>   
>   
>   
>  AN: I changed "piece" to "part". It was bothering me, but tbh I don't know if I made it better or worse.


End file.
